Several years ago, Netflix’s Ted Sarandos engaged in a conversation with the acclaimed director Guillermo del Toro, inquiring about the films that topped his personal wish list.
Del Toro’s response was immediate, citing “Pinocchio and Frankenstein.”
Sarandos, without hesitation, greenlit both projects for the streaming platform. Del Toro’s critically lauded dark-fantasy rendition of Pinocchio premiered in 2022.
However, as discussions turned to Frankenstein, del Toro issued a single caveat: “It’s big.”
Indeed, the Mexican filmmaker’s ambitious interpretation of the iconic mad scientist and his creation stands as a centerpiece of this year’s Venice Film Festival. This project represents the culmination of decades of dedication.
“It’s sort of a dream, or more than that, a religion for me since I was a kid,” del Toro shared with journalists at the festival.
He specifically acknowledged Boris Karloff’s performance in the 1931 adaptation as a significant influence, emphasizing the long journey required for his own vision to reach the screen.
“I always waited for the movie to be done in the right conditions, creatively, in terms of achieving the scope that it needed, to make it different, to make it on a scale that you could reconstruct the whole world,” he elaborated.
Now, with the film nearing release, the director humorously remarked that he’s “now in postpartum depression.”
Since Mary Shelley’s 1818 novel, countless films, television series, and comic books have presented variations of the celebrated character.
This latest adaptation features Oscar Isaac, known for his role in Inside Llewyn Davis, as Victor Frankenstein, while Jacob Elordi, recognized from Saltburn and Euphoria, undergoes a striking transformation to portray the monster-like creature brought to life.
Isaac recounted, “Guillermo said, ‘I’m creating this banquet for you, you just have to show up and eat.’ And that was the truth, there was a fusion, I just hooked myself into Guillermo, and we flung ourselves down the well.”
“I can’t believe I’m here right now,” he added, “that we got to this place from two years ago. It just seemed like such a pinnacle.”
Andrew Garfield was initially slated to portray the titular creature but had to withdraw due to scheduling conflicts arising from the Hollywood actors’ strike.
Elordi stepped in on short notice. “Guillermo came to me quite late in the process,” the actor recalled, “so I had about three weeks before I got to filming.”
“It presented itself as a pretty monumental task, but like Oscar said, the banquet was there, and everybody was already eating by the time I got there, so just had to pull up a seat. It was a dream come true.”
The film unfolds in three segments – a prelude, followed by dual narratives from the perspectives of both Frankenstein and his creation.
It delves into Frankenstein’s formative years and the influences that propelled him toward his fateful project. Simultaneously, it encourages viewers to empathize with the creature, highlighting the mistreatment he endured at the hands of his creator.
Clocking in at 149 minutes, the film allows ample time for nuanced character development and exploration of backstories. Initial reviews suggest that most critics concur that the runtime is justified.
Deadline’s Pete Hammond noted, “It perhaps might have been shortened, but del Toro’s sandbox is so irresistible, the return to big Hollywood moviemaking so pronounced, it must be hard to stop.”
“Once a filmmaker on the scale of del Toro gets unleashed in the lab, why cut it short?”
However, other reviews indicated that the film falls short of del Toro’s finest work. Geoffrey McNab of The Independent commented that it’s “all show and little substance,” adding, “For all Del Toro’s formal mastery, this Frankenstein is ultimately short of the voltage needed really to bring it to life.”
Conversely, David Rooney of the Hollywood Reporter expressed greater enthusiasm, declaring, “One of del Toro’s finest, this is epic-scale storytelling of uncommon beauty, feeling and artistry.”
In a four-star review, Total Film’s Jane Crowther stated: “Masterfully concocted and pertinent in theme, Guillermo del Toro’s Frankenstein is a classy, if somewhat safe, adaptation with awards legs.”
Del Toro is widely regarded as one of the most esteemed directors of his generation, celebrated within the industry for his profound love of cinema and his ambitious vision for its potential.
The 60-year-old is also a sought-after filmmaker for narratives involving monsters and fantastical creatures. His notable works include Pan’s Labyrinth, Prometheus, and The Shape of Water, which garnered him the Academy Awards for Best Picture and Best Director in 2018.
He harbors a deep affection for monsters and is known for humanizing them in his films, fostering empathy among audiences for characters traditionally perceived as villains.
Regarding Frankenstein, he explained, “I wanted the creature to be newborn. A lot of the interpretations are like accident victims, and I wanted beauty.”
His vision and meticulous attention to detail permeated every facet of the Frankenstein production, ensuring that costumes and sets were meticulously crafted – predominantly utilizing tangible, physical settings rather than computer-generated environments.
“CGI is for losers,” quipped Waltz, eliciting laughter. Del Toro added that employing real-life backdrops ultimately elicits superior performances from actors compared to using green screens.
He likened the distinction between CGI and physical craftsmanship to the contrast between “eye candy and eye protein,” while acknowledging the necessity of digital effects in certain instances.
While the concept of creating a sentient being that operates independently may resonate with contemporary themes, del Toro clarified that the film is “not intended as a metaphor” for artificial intelligence, as some critics have proposed.
Instead, he reflected, “We live in a time of terror and intimidation, and the answer, which art is part of, is love. And the central question in the novel from the beginning is, what is it to be human?”
“And there’s no more urgent task than to remain human in a time when everything is pushing towards a bipolar understanding of our humanity. And it’s not true, it’s entirely artificial.”
He continued: “The multi-chromatic characteristic of a human being is to be able to be black, white, grey, and all the shades in between. The movie tries to show imperfect characters, and the right we have to remain imperfect.”
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